There is so much wealth of material in relation to today’s subject that it’s taken me a bit of time to sort through everything. I have decided that I’ll stick with the football and music-related stuff, otherwise this post could go on for a long time. I will also short hand much of the back story and provide links for further reading. I recommend that you do explore.

So then may I present to you today’s featured artists:

The Shirehorses

Let’s have some bios:
– There was a young lad name of Mark Radcliffe who was promoted from twiddling the knobs (and Radio 1/One) to presenting a show on the newly established BBC station: Radio 5. This was at a time when the station was trying to find it’s feet, trying to establish an identity. Radcliffe’s first show on this new output was Hit The North.

Now he wasn’t alone on these programmes. Radcliffe had some company from another Mark, who’s previous job in Mark E. Smith’s musical ensemble was to straighten the lead singer’s Farah slacks. But by the time he met up with the other Mark, Riley was a record plugger who bugged Radcliffe to play the stuff he was pushing. Riley started hanging around all the time and eventually Radcliffe felt sorry for him and gave him something to do. They stayed together for another 14 years.

Notable: It was on Hit The North that Oasis got their first national radio airplay.

From here they moved to another show: The Graveyard Shift which pretty much carried on from where their previous show left off. There were notable contributions from Andrew Collins, Stuart Maconie, Mark Kermode, Katie Puckrick, Greg Proops, Mark Lamarr, Simon Armitage, Harry Hill, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Clint Boon… This programme lasted for another three years until they were tapped up for the:

Breakfast show (image above) which proved to be an unhappy time because it was when the ginger tosser Chris Evans had just quit, and their style wasn’t really suited for the early wake up/chatty zoo radio/playlist music that people usually hear. After a few months they were moved to a better and more appropriate time for the:

Afternoon Show where they thrived and came to national attention. The format didn’t change much from their previous shows and they continued with their silliness and sketches, plus pretty much ignored and ridculed the Radio 1 daytime playlist.

Yes, yes that’s all very nice. But what about this band then ? What’s the story (morning glory) behind that ?

DJ’s… they always want to be a popstar. They are failed musicians. But in this case both Scrawny and Lardy Boy had previous experience. Radcliffe played the drums but especially Mark Riley who used to be in The Fall as their bass player. So when it came to creating music it wasn’t a problem and the comedy came naturally.

The spoof song idea was originally tried out on their Hit The North programme. When they moved to Radio 1, the idea was continued and caught the imagination of the nation. These spoofs were instantly recognisable because they chose popular songs in the charts at the time and just put new words to these familiar tunes.

So the songs were created the next step was obviously coming up with a name – and they chose to parody one that John Squire chose for his band: The Seahorses.

Sea who…?   Exactly. They were, like their spoof version, a band that are an minor note in musical history.
You are going to argue with me ? Go on then, name one single they released. Who was in the band ? ‘Nuff said.

A quick reminder: This was the band that guitarist John Squire formed after the final collapse of the Stone Roses. They released four singles and one album before they also collapsed whilst trying to record their 2nd LP. This was such a bad experience for Squire that he gave up music all together and took up painting. The band were known at the time (1997) as Fauxasis.

Somehow they managed to get signed by a major label (Warners) and their first album (released 1997) was called The Shirehorses present… the worst album in the world… ever… Ever ! (to give it it’s full title). Still available at all retail outlets like Our Price and Woolworths. Or at your nearest Oxfam for 99p. The title being a parody as well of those “Greatest [musical genre here] Album In The World” compilations being churned out.

As mentioned they parodied songs that were in the charts and there’s the risk. You select popular tunes but many of the groups/songs that they spoofed are no longer around now. When looking at it now you have to do some research to reminder yourself of the songs and singers before listening to the parody.

- For example, since the Shirehorses parodied their name, they also did a “version” of the first (and biggest selling) single that The Seahorses released. Their song was Love Is The Law – and The Shirehorses did:

[See post to listen to audio] » The Shirehorses – Now I Know (Where I’m Going) Our Kid

See ? I I didn’t tell you about the Seahorses, you might not have known which song was being parodied.
I’ll give you a list of other names spoofed on the album, see if you can guess who they were satirizing:

Peela Tater, Baby Bloke, Doofergrass, Edwin Bobbins, Flush, Moronico, Po-fasis

As I said above they picked on chart stars of the day but nearly all of them have disappeared now.

(Peela Tater: Kula Shaker)   aah now you see it.

The best track on this album though, in my humble opinion, is the one the two well know football supporters did their favourite team: Manchester City (finally he gets to the football). Featuring on this song was Alan Bawl (no relation) and the track was about City’s plight back then – sliding down the leagues – and Francis Lee, the beleaguered chairman who was an ex-player and City legend. It didn’t help that he appointed his mate Alan Ball (the real one) who started the slide by getting City relegated from the Premier League.

Sorry…? Who was Alan Bawl (no relation) ? Have a listen here.

So here now is:

[See post to listen to audio] » Dick Cave & The Bad Cheese feat Alan Bawl (No relation) - The Ballad Of Franny Lee

- A couple more from the album before we move on:

An unexpected thing happened after the album was released – they were invited to open Glastonbury which meant forming an actual band.
They grabbed Chunky’ Rhys Hughes (producer of the Breakfast Show) on bass and ‘Chester’s Dark Prince Of the Mandolin’ (aka Christopher Lee, Radio One sound engineer) on bass, mandolins, pewter tankards…anything lying round really… and off they went.

After Glasto ’97 they embarked on the ”We Came, We Saw, We Cantered’ tour where they performed at student unions and anywhere that would book them really. Such was their success that they even played stadium gigs supporting Blur.

Eventually things wound down and nearly forgotten for a few years but they made a comeback in 2001, releasing a second LP this time it was callled: Our Kid, Eh (and the title of this post). They once again went out on tour to support this difficult second album with a massive tour of err… four dates…

Parodied names on this one included:

Manic Street Sweepers, Robbie and William, Foreplay, Radioshed, Blurb, Status Quorn, Dave Lee Travisty plus the return of Po fasis and Doofergrass.

- To finish off here’s just one track from that album, because in my opin it wasn’t as good as the first:

[See post to listen to audio] » Pixiedancers – Planet Of Sound

Lots of links now:

...also... Posted on Beat-Nick’s Mixes is a collection of Mark & Lard’s best bits stitched together. I’ve uploaded it to Soundcloud for your listening pleasure.

Extra Time – This live performance from their show, with Mark & Lard on backup shouting:

[See post to listen to audio] » Travis – …Baby One More Time

“Must get some oil for this door…”

I may have mentioned in passing, but usually keep quiet because I like to keep some neutrality on F&M.

But today I am breaking that rule and celebrating Manchester City’s FA Cup win.

I am a long, long suffering City fan. I’ve been there at Maine Road, I’ve stood in the Kippax.

I was also there away at places such as Colchester, Wycombe and Chesterfield.

Then in the summer of 1999 they began their journey back…

I don’t remember the League Cup win in 1976, but I do remember the 1981 FA Cup final (but not the replay for some reason…) I have to admit though that Chas n’ Dave played a blinder with that one.

- I have created, or more accurately hacked together a special version of the song played at Man City all the time. There are hundreds of covers but I chose the most well know and added some match commentary:

[See post to listen to audio] » Sha Na Na – Blue Moon (Man City FA Cup Mix)

Additionally: It is very sad that the Timperley’s finest wasn’t around for this final… I think everybody would have loved seeing him singing Abide With Me before the kick off…. Below is the Man City Medley recorded by Frank (with Little Frank on backing vocals) around the time that Frank Clarke was the manager.

Ah Frank Clarke eh ? We can laugh about it now…

Fantastic !

This year the destination of the F.A Cup will be decided by YOU.

We’ll be taking a poll and you will chose who takes the crown. Who’ll raise the first F.A Cup singoff trophy.
(Don’t actually have a trophy to give out at the moment, we’ll use this teacup for now)

I’ve previously wrote about both teams and the most famous song associated with them. But judging by the number of visits from people looking for information about one of them this will be a whitewash, but I implore you please try to have some impartiality today and select the winner on the music alone.

Blue Moon

This very old song as played at the City of Manchester stadium all the time, which really doesn’t have an origin of how or where it began. I think it was a corporate decision or something. If there are any Citeh fans out there who do know the real reason, post a comment.

The previous mention about the song on F&M was a couple of years back when Ricky Hatton, one of Man City’s most famous fans, was preparing to fight Manny Pacquiao. In the post Blue Hatton I collected over 35 versions of that song. Today I will randomly choose 4four of them for the contest.

Delilah

As sung by the fans of Stoke City & the most visited post on F&M with people coming to find out: Why Delilah ?
With perfect timing… Graham Forster also visited that post and took the time to email me with an answer:

“Hello,

Stoke city supporters sing Delilah:

Many years ago, the fans were singing songs in a pub after a match. There were complaints about the rude language in some of the songs and the police asked them to sing songs without swear words in. On the juke box at the time was…Delilah! The supporters sang the song and adopted it as their anthem. A legend was born…

Hope that answers the question.”

Looking at the other comments there is another one who agrees with you there Graham, there’s also a couple who also put in a mention about a policeman.

But anyway that’s not why we are here… we are here today for the singing compo between Blue Moon and this song, of which I’ve found four very different cover versions…

So then… take the poll… and remember it’s which is the better set of songs, not team:

Years before there was a third one – that of running a pub – but this was in the day when the footballer player wasn’t the rock n’ roll star that they became in the 70′s. These players were in the limelight and nearly all of them wanted to stay there.

There was an option of taking up management, which meant after spending much of your twilight years sitting on the bench you ended back there yet again. But this time it was in a suit and this time you controlled who gathered the splinters. Upside to this was that you are once again in the public eye. Everybody was looking at you again. Downside obviously is getting your team to win matches.

Some liked this pressure. All of them loved still being in the game. But for some others.. well they could talk a good game…

…As well as play it of course, but when they came to that fork in the road they decided to head towards the bright studio lights instead of the flooded ones.

Side note: Rodney Marsh did some coaching of a few American teams, but never took up the reigns this side of the pond.George Best went the same way as Lineker and Hanson did years later – straight to the comfy sofa.

One of Best’s most notable televisual appearances was with his old mate Rodney Marsh on a Granada TV programme presented by Tony Wilson (some time TV presenter, some time record company mogul, full time big mouth). The show was called “Best and Marsh – The Perfect Match” and featured Wilson taking to Georgie who reminisced (on that sofa) about their time playing football in the 1970′s.

Now usually You Tube is the place to find clips for these sort of things, but sadly this time it has let us down. » There is a TVS (Television South) version of the same format, this time with Mick Channon and Alan Ball, done a couple of years later which you can watch here. It was called… teeth grindingly… “The Channon and Ball Show”.

(For those who don’t get that – there was a comedy double act who were big around that time called Cannon and Ball, so as you can see… the title was a terrible pun on their name.)

As for clips of Wilson with Best & Marsh there’s only this tiny snippet which has Tony Wilson signing off from the show and introducing some clips of Marsh in action:

- Additionally I just found this site: Classic Football DVD’s which has a description of the programme:

22nd Jan 1988 - 18th March 1988 Tony Wilson hosted this eight part series, prompting George Best and Rodney Marsh to reminisce on two 1970′s matches plucked from the archives in each half-hour programme. Although this was a non-networked Granada production, the footage was not exclusively concerned with North West clubs and some other region’s screened it the following year.

The shows were themed as follows: Show 1. George & Rod, 2. Goalkeepers, 3. Great Teams: Derby & Leeds, 4. The Liverpool Years, 5. Local Derby’s, 6. Goalscorers, 7. British Clubs in Europe, 8. The FA Cup.

As it says it was originally just shown in Granadaland (the North West) but eventually and because of the subjects it was seen elsewhere around the country and as mentioned above the format was replicated by TVS with Alan Ball & Mick Channon.

In fact the viewership of the Best and Marsh programme got so high that there was a demand for more. So in the early 90′s the two of them went on the road and did some live shows.

Title music:

The programme needed some music, so who was the producer – and presenter of the show – going to find for this…? Hmm…
It just so happened that he knew of this struggling indie band who owed him a favour…

[See post to listen to audio] » New Order – Best and Marsh [See post to listen to audio] » Best and Marsh (Perkowitz Remix) The track was a B side on… [See post to listen to audio] » New Order – Round And Round (12″ Mix)

Additionally I found the following clip from Best and Marsh which show the band in the process and talking about the of recording this tune. It was this track which led them to do the Englandneworder song…

A quick bio, selected text from Wikipedia:

Rodney William Marsh was born on the 11th October 1944 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. His father named him after the battleship HMS Rodney, on which he served.

Like George Best, Stan Bowles, Peter Osgood and Frank Worthington – Marsh was one of a generation of highly talented “maverick” players that emerged in English football during the 1960s and 1970s and never quite fulfilled their potential.

…Began his career with Fulham but after a dispute with manager Vic Buckingham, he moved to rival QPR.

… In 1972, he signed for Manchester City and at the time of signing City were top of the table and four point clear, but by the end of the season had slipped to 4th. Marsh himself has since claimed that it was he who cost the club the league title that year, with his style simply not suiting that of the team. He nevertheless became one of City’s star players. He left the club shortly into the 1975-76 season after disagreements with new manager Tony Book.

After this Marsh went to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, which was an enjoyable time for him… Florida became a second home… There was a move back to Blighty and a one-season spell back at Fulham, playing alongside Georgie Best and Sir Bobby Moore before he returned to Tampa for two more years.

Never short of an opinion, never far from controversy is our Rodders.

Upon retirement…

Upon retiring Marsh became a pundit, earning a reputation for his outspoken views on the game.

- He was involved in a long-running banter with Bradford City and its supporters in the 1999-00 season, in which he flippantly dismissed their chances of survival in the FA Premier League. Confident as he was in his prediction of their relegation he offered to shave all of his hair off if they stayed up, which they subsequently managed. Marsh honoured his bet and had his hair removed in the centre circle of Valley Parade.

- Marsh was one of the pundits/commentators on $ky Sports Saturday but was sacked after he used a very mistimed pun, not long after the Asian Tsunami.

Quote: “‘David Beckham has turned down a move to Newcastle United because of trouble with the “Toon Army in Asia”.

- He took a job at Talksport but this too didn’t last very long and he got the old football managers heave-ho:

“Rodney Marsh parts company with talkSPORT by “mutual consent” and leaves his role as co-presenter of Drive with Adrian Durham. It is understood that Marsh wants to spend more time in Florida with his family. “

- In 2007 he took part in “I’m A Celebrity…” and was disliked by the other contestants before having to leave with an injury.

- In January 2008 Marsh threatened to return his nine international caps in protest at the Football Association’s appointment of an Italian, Fabio Capello as the manager of the England national football team rather than appoint an English coach.

More quotes:

* “You mumphead!”
* “That’s a nonsense!”
* “I wasn’t the white Pelé, he was the black Rodney Marsh”
* “This gong was given to me by Phil Collins.”
* “If I wanted it licking,I would’ve asked Biggins!!”
* “Christopher Biggins could take us to the World Cup.” (When asked whether Fabio Capello could lead England to the World Cup.)
* “I like it salty………but this is too salty!”
* “To all those who voted me to do this…….bollocks” (During a bushtucker trial on I’m a Celebrity…)
* “He’ll struggle to score six goals…” (On Kevin Phillips preceding the 1999-2000 season, in which Phillips scored 30 goals and gained the European golden boot.)

The Music…

Have this ’70′s freakout – Don’t know who is having the freakout though:

[See post to listen to audio] » Unknown – We Want Rodney Marsh

Extra Time:

As they mention in the comments on Freaky Trigger about this song – some people used to sing: “Ohhh, Rodney, Rodney, Rodney Marsh…”

Additional Links:

- A mini-interview with the Guardian’s Small Talk.

- I’ve skimmed over his time with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, but there’s an excellent in-depth look at Marsh and the team themselves, all by somebody in the UK – get yourself over to the Tampa Bay Rowdies Appreciation Blog.

I don’t know what it was with footballers in the 1970′s, drinking, gambling, punch ups, sleeping with someone else’s birds… you never see that with the modern day players.   Oh.

One of these so-called rebels was like the next player I’m going to profile, somebody with exceptional talent but was called up by England only a handful of times. Those times though were the mid 70′s when the type of football being played in England wasn’t exactly one of skill. There was a time when players such as Tommy Smith, Norman Hunter and “Chopper” Harris dictated how games were played. Usually with a leg breaking tackle or two.

But there was Stan Bowles, who leapt over these challenges.

Bowles started out with his hometown team of Man City, but after three seasons because of constant falling outs with…well anybody who was close enough…he was eventually released. After a brief spell at Bury, Crewe and then (2nd Division) Carlisle, it was here that he caught the eye and joined QPR in January 1972.

Wikipedia:

He replaced in the team another QPR folk-hero, Rodney Marsh, who had been transferred to Bowles’ first club Manchester City six months before. Bowles took over Marsh’s number 10 shirt, which other players had been reluctant to wear in fear of being compared to Marsh. Bowles had no qualms about taking the shirt, primarily because he said that, coming from the North, he had never heard of Marsh.

His rebelliousness and misbehaviour continued when in 1973 his QPR team were away at Sunderland, who had just won the FA Cup.
Before the match kicked off the trophy was paraded around the ground and then placed on a table at the side of the pitch.
Bowles spotted this, took a ball and kicked it towards the cup, knocking it flying off the table.

Even with his most successful period at QPR, he still had differences with the management. As seen below when Dave Sexton, the boss of QPR was trying to sub him in a match against West Ham:

Eventually he left QPR to be sold to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest and I don’t have to tell you how they didn’t get on and… he was on the move again to Leyton Orient before his final club – Brentford.

He retired in 1984 and went the usual after dinner speaker/pundit route before once again replacing Rodney Marsh (more about that in another post) this time on Sky Sports.

Bowles is still mouthing off and is still not short of an opinion. Ever the rebel even in his old age.

Related:
Now you’ve read all that take the Guardian Football quiz.

The Music:

The Others, who are a sort of Razorlight/Libertines wanna-be released a single in 2004 which they used the ex-QPR legend as the title and as the chorus. It reached number 36 in the charts:

[See post to listen to audio] » The Others – Stan Bowles

Video:

4th Sept 2008:

“Kevin Keegan has resigned as manager of Newcastle United after just eight months in charge…

… Keegan was furious to discover members of his already slim squad had been offered for sale during the final hours before the window closed, after he had reluctantly accepted James Milner’s £12m departure to Aston Villa.”

[See post to listen to audio]

» Busker – Thank You Kevin

At the end of the 2008-2009 season they were relegated.

9th Aug 2010:

“Martin O’Neill has resigned as Aston Villa manager with immediate effect…

…(Aston Villa owner) Randy Lerner had backed O’Neill in the transfer market during that spell but it became clear this summer that similar investment would not be forthcoming.

Lerner insisted that Villa would have to adopt a sell-to-buy policy and O’Neill was resigned to losing the services of midfielder James Milner to Manchester City.”

[Nobody at Villa sang about him, but when he was at Celtic]

[See post to listen to audio]

Derek Warfield-Ballad of Martin O’Neill

At the end of the 2010-2011 season… ???

I know, I know. They season hasn’t started. They haven’t kicked a ball yet. Plus the transfer window is still open and the prospect of managing a Premier League club, even if it’s now a selling one is very tasty for any candidate. Additionally they have a very decent squad – they’ve got Shorey …err… Heskey and um… that other swapsie from City from last season…

Aston Villa are a decent club who will probably finish mid-table now ? I mean… Stop me if you've heard this one... they are too big to go down.

James Milner. Tied in with both resignations.

But he wasn’t a part of the trouble with the Newcastle > Aston Villa transfer.

Oh wait he was:

“…Aston Villa have announced the signing of James Milner from Newcastle United – the England U-21 international has penned a four-year deal at Villa after passing a medical at Villa Park.

Villa have been after Milner for a couple of years now – and the youngster finally forced the issue by handing in a transfer request earlier this month.

But lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice.

Oh wait. It does:

“I had a conversation with James before the World Cup and he intimated that he’d like to go,” said O’Neill.

“I’d imagine things will be resolved in foreseeable future.”

“City made an offer but it did not meet our valuation.”

“I’m sure matters will be resolved soon.”

As a long suffering (yes I know I’m not allowed to say that anymore) Man City supporter I’m very conflicted.

On the one hand I welcome the prospect of seeing Milner playing over at Eastlands, but on the other hand I question as to why Bob Mankini (and the liability that is Garry Cooke) are stockpiling all these players. With this restriction on a 25 named squad for this season you have to wonder if half of them will be sitting with Robinho up in the stands. Maybe a few will go out on loan, but many of these (very overpaid) prima donnas will immediately start to sulk and demand a move. Shay Given has already started threatening.

Plus when they do get on the pitch it’s not going to be a set line-up. Again with some of these “firebrand” personalities, some of them…most of them like to kick out and have seen a few yellows and reds last season.

With this embarrassment of riches comes the extra trouble and pressure for Mr Mancini and I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t the next to follow O’Neill if the club isn’t topping the league.

As I said I’m very conflicted. It used to be when I mentioned that I was a Man City supporter I got a nod of sympathy from the other party. But now it’s the Mercenary XI and a sneer at their wealth.

I’ll let previous Citeh boss, previously mentioned, to play us out.

Because…

… being a City fan right now. No seriously. Stop laughing. It really isn’t.

Well I don’t know what to write… I feel that I have to write something because Frank is another one of those Manchester icons who have gone too soon. You see I am Manchester. I am from Manchester and I will forever be Manchester even if I’m 3000 miles away.

As I get older I see these people who shaped my life all passing away…
Ian Curtis, Martin Hannett, Rob Gretton, Tony Wilson, and now.. Frank Sidebottom.

Oh I know that Uncle Frank didn’t exactly cause any ripples in the musical world, but like the others above he was Manchester. To be precise Timperley, but he was always gigging around the city.

Like many when these things happen you like to tell a funny story about your experience with Frank, so this is mine:

It was the early 90′s when Frank was out of fashion and he was playing a late afternoon/early evening gig at a pub in Levenshulme. I don’t know why he was on at that time, maybe a matinee thing I don’t know, but anyway… There we were in the public bar and on the small stage at the other end was Frank and his Bontempi organ. Now in there at the time (I think it was a Thursday or Friday) his audience was made up of the five of us and a dog. I am not making this up. Five people. And the dog.

At an allotted time (again I don’t know why, he must have been told to start at this time) Frank looked up and said “Oh it’s looks like the charabanc with all me family hasn’t got here yet. I’ll give them a minute.”

He then sat on the edge of the stage and looked straight ahead. Still in that papier-mâché head.
Occasionally he would look to the left and to the right, like he was looking and waiting for somebody, then straight ahead again. This sight was both slightly unerving and funny at the same time.

Eventually after what seemed like an age, but was probably only about five minutes he got up and started his act. Still to the five of us and the now sleeping dog. Nobody else had come in at that point.

After a small amount of time a few more did arrive and I think I counted about a dozen heads, but despite this sparse number Frank carried on and entertained us all. And the dog.

After he finished he told everybody that he had some albums and cassettes for sale if we’d like to buy. I went up and bought an LP and tape and got Frank to sign them both. I think these are both now sitting in storage with everything in the shed, I’ll have to dig them out. He then sat with us and had a drink. Through a straw mind. At no point did he break character. He never did and never will…

A couple of years later I bumped into him at the Reading Festival. I was lucky enough to get a presspass for backstage. (Not the backstage, but the area where all the plebs who thought they were special hung out). There was Frank – even though he didn’t need to – schmoozing the crowd. I told him about that five people/1 dog gig in Manchester and he remembered it well. The hundreds that were there, hanging out the door they were. Did two encores. Fantastic.

I’ve gone on a bit too long now, so I’ll stop here. Still have more to tell. Maybe another time.

In the past few weeks, ever after he learnt about and was getting treatment for the tumour in his chest, as they say the show must go on. He continued to gig and was planning on doing another of his Magical Timperley tours on July 4th. Which he announced only a couple of days ago would have to be cancelled.

I was closely watching his MySpace page and Tweets because Frank had also announced plans to release a World Cup song with the profits going to cancer research.

I was still awaiting news of this release, which was imminent, before he was taken from us.

But the song Three Shirts On My Line (clip below) might still get a posthumous release.

- There’s a Facebook campaign ~ also on Twitter ~ that was launched after the news of his passing. It’s aim is like the Rage Against the Machine one, to get this song to Number 1 in the charts.
As mentioned the original plan by Frank was for profits to go to cancer research and it still will.

As soon as I have news of when the track is out I will do full coverage here.
In the meantime some reposts of my favourite Sidebottom compositions:

And my all time favourite video – the Frank Sidebottom Supergroup (Frank, Little Frank, David Soul and Paul Ryder from the Happy Mondays) and their rendition of Hit The North:

  Little Frank is going to be speechless…

“Watching Man City miss out on the Champers league today I couldn’t help humming this little ditty from Rialto. Their cross town buddies must have been chortling all through the last 10 min, “not yet, you don’t”.

Or does it apply to Villa, perennial also-rans, likely looking at 6th place for the 3rd year in a row ?”

» Rialto – The Underdogs

Lyrics:

The Underdogs keep running after shining motorbikes,
trying to keep up while they look back and laugh,
oh we’re so tired of dragging our hearts.
It’s the chrome and steel,
and all the power that we want to feel,
so when we catch them we will rip them apart,
cos it’s no more than they did to us.
* We’ve been waiting so long,
we know just what we want,
we will cheat and we’ll rob,
cos we are The Underdogs,
we are The Underdogs.
The Underdogs, and we’ve had too
much shit kicked out of us,
to stop us howling at the moon through the night,
and if it keeps them up, well that’s alright.
To be bitter and alone is such a dirty little job.
We’re jaded to our brittle bones,
cos we are The Underdogs,
yes we are The Underdogs.

I would say it applies more to the Villa. But there’s consolation prizes all round with City, Villa and (thanks to Pompey) Liverpool who are all in the Europa next season.

Might as well throw in an additional track from this average sounding band who no-one misses:
Another track with “un”, this time it is Untouchable – which could be related to…?

Thanks Eric. Keep them coming.

	[See post to listen to audio] » Harmony Blend – Blue City (Paloma Blanca)
	[See post to listen to audio] » The Dollies – Rah Rah Rah for Manchester United

The Man City song was original found and posted by Left and to the Back whose self torture seems to be in finding old records which were (for the most part) rightfully ignored.

This one… is there a scale of obscureness…? Because this one is something like 9/100th obscure.

Left and to the Back writes…

“The title “Blue City” should have been a screaming giveaway of course, but I’m thick like that. In a way, I’m glad I did take this one home – the single appears to be a Euro-disco soccer-based take on “Una Paloma Blanca”, complete with Linn drum “peooing!” noises, used here to an effect not heard since Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell”. Clearly the market for disco-loving Manchester City fans was no stronger in 1978 than it is today, as the single flopped.”

He goes on to write about John Schroeder (who’s been previously featured on here) and his link to Creation Records and the brothers Gallagher who… etc.

The Man Utd song I have zero information about. It sounds like something recorded in the 60′s and it helps any poor illiterate EmYou fan out by spelling out the name of the club for them.
- Bonus bit at the end: Audio from an old episode of Coronation Street with Stan and Hilda Ogden.